Hotels come clean with discarded soap

About one million partly used bars of soap are tossed out daily by U.S. hotels, according to Clean the World Foundation, a non-profit organisation that recycles used soap for distribution to developing nations and homeless shelters.

But recycling organisations such as Clean the World, based in Orlando, and Global Soap Project, based in Atlanta, are starting to get more attention from large hotel companies.

Clean the World said last week that it reached an agreement with Starwood Hotels to recycle soap, shampoo and lotion.

They estimate about 1.6 million pounds of soap may be recycled each year because Starwood has about 176,000 rooms in North America.

Clean the World has had collection deals with about 1,000 individual hotels, including about 100 Marriotts and 80 Hiltons.

Some properties run by Carlson, Wyndham, Hyatt and Joie de Vivre Hotels also donate to the organisation. But the Starwood partnership is its first corporatewide agreement with a large hotel company.